Friday, October 4, 2019

Bielefeld, Germany - Part 2: Beautiful Bielefeld

Yes, Virginia, there is a Bielefeld

Old houses (19th and 18th century) in the historic part of downtown
If you Google Bielefeld you will find that there is a 25-year-old conspiracy theory disputing the very existence of the place. Well, I won't be applying for the 1 million Euro reward since I definitely cannot claim that it is non-existent after spending an exceedingly enjoyable 12 days there.

Bielefeld has a population of about 330,000 - a significant portion of which are students that attend the University of Bielefeld (whose claim(s) to fame I will get to later). It is a leafy, calm and rather bucolic place with some major industries (Dr. Oetker, Miele), a significant profile in academia and a relaxed yet industrious feel to it.

Almost immediately after arriving I learned about this fantastic tourism deal - a card that would get me free entrance to a number of museums and also give me unlimited transit on the city's buses and trams - all for just €13 (a real bargain considering a single ticket on transit that was good for 90 minutes cost €2.80). More about that later.

My classmate Diana lives there with her partner Jens (who also studied in Uppsala though not in our faculty). Diana is employed as a research assistant at the University and is also working on her PhD while Jens is works mostly remotely for an IT company but goes once a month for a few days to be on-site with the company (which is located in his home town).

For the first couple of days I let Diana march me around the city (she seems congenitally unable to walk slowly but I do have the advantage of probably 8 inches in height on her so this pace works for me) and show me the university and the abundance of green spaces that make it possible to get to many destinations with very little time spent on busy streets. After I got kind of oriented and she went back to work I wandered around on my own discovering the all important items I look for in every place I visit (free toilets, reasonably priced and reasonably good coffee)

University of Bielefeld

This university has a couple of claims to fame - one of being the second largest building (in terms of square footage) in Europe, second only to the Romanian Parliament Buildings (Palace of the Parliament), and the other of being the 'ugliest university in Europe'. It is a typical Soviet era building (the university is just about to celebrate its 50th birthday) and does indeed seem somewhat cavernous and unwelcoming but I found it to have its own kind of charm.

There was also some rather interesting art on its walls as well as a variety of services not readily available at the University of Victoria (for example) such as being able to buy wine and organic fruit and vegetables. Very helpful and convenient if you don't have time after class to go to a shop on your way home to buy ingredients or wine for dinner. Feel free to form your own opinion based on some photos below (or better still consider a visit to Bielefeld to find out for yourself).

Just a small part of the overall university building - which basically is a large central hall with various wings (two shown here on each side) coming off of it on both sides

The central hall has the feel of a gymnasium combined with a massive train station hall with higher levels having narrow corridors around the edges. This photo doesn't capture it but gives you an idea of how it looks.

Main hall



Outdoor seating - probably much more heavily populated in warmer weather

Rather depressing painting (a reference to the Titanic or just the state of the world?)

Graffiti

Lobster detail of the graffiti shown in previous photo

Another piece of graffiti

Outdoor graffiti

Out and About in Bielefeld

Unlike Vilnius (undoubtably because Vilnius is much more of a tourist destination) very few of the museums have written information in English nor do they have audio guides. Despite this I enjoyed my visits to several museums which allowed me to get visual impressions of the city, its history and its artistic foundations even if I could not always understand the captioning and explanations that accompanied objects.

Farmhouse Museum

This museum was the exception in that it had a quite helpful printed guide in English. It was lovely and informative and gave an excellent primer into the history of rural inhabitants of the Bielefeld region.

Detail of the fancy canopy bed, that I presume was part of the marriage/wedding night 

Dresser in the farmhouse

Old City Hall

The old City Hall (rathaus) which is under renovation and so unfortunately could not be toured has some lovely architectural details as do many of the houses about the town.

scowling (protesting city hall?) face



happier looking face (well-paid city employee?)


Owl and face

Pan (?)

Window and archway

Houses and Art

During my wandering (both with and without Diana) I came across beautiful houses and pieces of public art. Here's a small sample of what I found on my ambling.

House that caught my eye

Detail from the house

Another attractive house


Bacchus maybe?

Sculpture outside St. Jodokus (Diana told me the artist was a woman)

Gorgeous green Meissen tiles on a cafe

Fancy interior of a place Diana and I stopped for coffee and a treat (Cafe Knygge)

In no particular order here are some other things I enjoyed during my time in Bielefeld:

  • riding all of the tram lines (except for one that is being replaced by bus service on one spur) from end to end and just observing the city around me
  • the art museum (Kunsthalle) - free admission with the tourist card - and with works by Picasso and supposedly Yoko Ono (though I could not find any of the latter)
  • the Bielefeld History Museum which although it had no information in English was still intriguing because of its innovative way of presenting artifacts
  • a couple of hours spent wandering around the lake north of the city (Oversee) where I saw quite a few birds and enjoyed the sparkle of sunshine on water
  • the visit Diana and I paid to Bielefeld's zoo where we saw birds, mammals and lots of happy parents and kids (human not animal)
  • while Jens was away visiting his parents Diana and I watched quite a bit of TV including Mr. Robot (dark and more than a little disturbing) and the Minions movie (hilarious!)

In the middle of my time in Bielefeld Diana and I went to Rotterdam to meet up with two other classmates from our studies in Sweden for a weekend. That is featured in its own post.

All too quickly it was time to bid farewell to Bielefeld. I was filled with trepidation at the thought of a bus trip from Bielefeld to Vilnius, Lithuania after the not so good bus experience from London to Bielefeld. I investigated train (possible to Warsaw but then kind of fell apart) and flying (costly and complicated as Bielefeld does not have its own airport and this would require a bus or train trip to a bigger city first plus the problem of very rigorous luggage restrictions which you don't face on a bus or train) but in the end settled on a bus to Berlin with BlaBlaBus and then on Ecolines from Berlin to Vilnius.


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